BROWNSVILLE, TEXAS – JANUARY 19, 2011 – Dr. Juan R. Iglesias, associate professor and chair of the Department of Computer and Information services at The University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College, has received one of 55 worldwide 2010 IBM Faculty Awards.

The award is for $40,000 and will pay for a nVidia Quadro Plex D visualization server that operates on 960 central processing units and a wall mounted high definition interactive touch screen system measuring 26 feet long and 12 feet high. The equipment will be installed in Room 1.508, a computer science laboratory, in the Science, Engineering and Technology Building.

“The particles invisible to the human eye can now be seen with the huge screen,” said Iglesias.

The high definition screen can be used to see maps to study growth and environmental issues, computer modeling and science, technology, social sciences and computer science research and simulations. Each of the eight high definition computer panels making up the large screen can work independently or as a system.

The 2010 IBM Faculty Award was given to 55 recipients at 47 universities in 15 countries. The award promotes work opportunities, teaching and research innovation and collaboration between faculty-researchers. This is the first time Iglesias has received the award.

A third component will create the High Performance Computer facility. The College of Science, Mathematics and Technology received a $704,293 Major Research Instrumentation grant from the National Science Foundation in November to purchase Futuro, the university’s third generation computing cluster which has the computing power equivalent to more than 160 personal computers. This component will be located in Room 112 in Cortez Hall and will connect to the visualization server and touch screen system via the Internet.

Iglesias said the High Performance Computing facility is the only one at an institution south of Austin. He said the equipment should be fully functional by the end of February.

“This is a great step for the department in order to obtain new funds for agencies and attract more students and increase research activity within the department,” said Iglesias.

Dr. Hansheng Lei, an assistant professor in the Department of Computer and Information Sciences, will oversee the High Performance Computer facility.

“It will enable cutting edge projects in visualization,” said Lei. “For education, it will enrich many courses such as Computer Graphics, Image Processing and Computer Vision. I am very glad to see this IBM Faculty Award given to Dr. Iglesias in recognition of his contribution to the Department of Computer and Information Science as well as his research in high performance computing.”

Faculty members, students and researchers from other institutions will use the computer system.

“Scientific visualization is an interdisciplinary branch of science that crosses traditional boundaries between academic disciplines,” said Dr. Mikhail Bouniaev, dean of the College of Science, Mathematics and Technology. “The visualization and graphic representation of complex scientific concepts can lead to unexpected discoveries as well as significantly enhance both science and technology education.”

The Department of Computer and Information Sciences’ bachelor’s degree in computer science program received last fall Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology accreditation. ABET is a federation of 30 professional and technical societies that accredit 3,100 applied science, computing, engineering and technology higher education programs in 21 nations.

The University of Texas at Brownsville website uses Javascript. Your browser either doesn't support Javascript or you have it turned off.
To access this page as it is meant to fuinction please use a Javascript enabled browser.